When working with local InDesign files and local image links, I get warnings about missing links or modified links in case the images have been removed or updated since being placed in InDesign. When working with InDesign through Adobe Drive, the behavior seems to be radically different.

For instance, I place an image from the virtual Z drive and save the InDesign file on the virtual Z drive.

At a later time, the asset is removed from the DAM system (or moved so it is now mapped to a different local path).

When I reconnect through Adobe Drive and open the InDesign file, I will not get a missing link error, instead the link will appear without a missing link icon but also without a path.

Certain workarounds that we have implemented (e.g. remapping the path on the fly in case the asset has been moved) work when the originally placed image was a local file (i.e. occurs in the XMP with a C: path) but not when the originally placed image was retrieved through Drive (i.e. occurs in the XMP with a Z: path). Of course we would like to obtain consistent InDesign behavior regardless of whether the user connects through Drive or not.

Has this different behavior for InDesign links been documented? Can I get any additional information about it?

Currently, In one machine, User creates a new InDesign file(eg. main.indd), place an image located at Z:\Temp\link.jpg in it, and save the file to the C drive. If he deletes/renames Z:\Temp\link.jpg, the following dialog will be show when open the InDesign file(main.indd).

But if user copies that InDesign file(main.indd) to another machine and open it, above dialog won't be shown. It's an issue for Adobe Drive working with InDesign. We can fix it in next release.

For your case, I think it's better to mount Adobe Drive Disk on the machine where you copy the InDesign files to.

Currently, In one machine, User creates a new InDesign file(eg. main.indd), place an image located at Z:\Temp\link.jpg in it, and save the file to the C drive. If he deletes/renames Z:\Temp\link.jpg, the following dialog will be show when open the InDesign file(main.indd).

I cannot reproduce this. I get the same behavior (i.e. no missing link warning) both on two separate machines and on one machine.

But if user copies that InDesign file(main.indd) to another machine and open it, above dialog won't be shown. It's an issue for Adobe Drive working with InDesign. We can fix it in next release.

This would be a high priority fix for us. Has a next release already been planned for Adobe Drive?

For your case, I think it's better to mount Adobe Drive Disk on the machine where you copy the InDesign files to.

Unfortunately, this is not always possible. Depending on the publishing workflow, the InDesign file and links may eventually end up e.g. at a printer agency that has no access to the customer's DAM system.

Our QE did testing on my cases, and their results are the same as mine. So could you provide your machine info(OS version) and try my cases on another machine? I will record this issue in our bug tracking system.

I have done some additional testing on another test server and I think I know what may be causing the different behavior.

When I follow your steps, I do get a missing link warning, but ONLY if the link was originally added to the DAM system through Adobe Drive on the same client machine (i.e. using the CheckInHandler).

If I try the same steps with a link that was already present in the DAM system before installing Adobe Drive (or a link that was added to the DAM system from another client machine), then I don't get the missing link warning.

This is a serious problem since images can be added to the DAM from many different clients and many image files may already be present in the DAM system when a customer starts using Adobe Drive.

Can you please try to reproduce this behavior, i.e. placing Z:\Temp\link2.jpg but WITHOUT first adding this file to the DAM from the same client machine?

I have some screen capture movies that I can send you through email if needed.